Wakanda & Frozen Lands Teased for Disney World & Disneyland
Earlier today, the Walt Disney Company released plans to “turbocharge” investment in Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and the international parks to nearly double capital expenditures over the course of approximately 10 years to roughly $60 billion. Thanks to an investor conference, we now know that the expansion might include Wakanda from Black Panther and the World of Frozen.
Senior Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger and Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, gathered with Wall Street analysts and investors at Walt Disney World on September 19, 2023 for an investor summit. This event is focused on Disney’s Parks & Resorts business, its track record, and future ambitions of investing aggressively and intelligently in experiences that leverage the powerful and ever-growing library of Disney stories.
This post starts with what the Walt Disney Company has released from the investor summit, including statements by Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro. Following that, we’ll have commentary about the likelihood of these plans coming to fruition, plus how and where they could happen. Let’s start with comments from the CEO and Parks Chairman…
“We’re incredibly mindful of the financial underpinning of the company, the need to continue to grow in terms of bottom line, the need to invest wisely so that we’re increasing the returns on invested capital, and the need to maintain a balance sheet, for a variety of reasons,” said Bob Iger. “The company is able to absorb those costs and continue to grow the bottom line and look expansively at how we return value and capital to our shareholders.”
“We have an ambitious growth story that is supported by a proven track record and a bold vision for the future of our Parks business,” said D’Amaro. Central to the business’s growth strategy will be a focus on stories, scale, and fans.
According to a press release from the Walt Disney Company, its theme parks business serves as a powerful platform where beloved stories come to life in innovative ways, and where fans across generations and geographies can connect with and explore the Disney brands and franchises they love, from Avatar to Zootopia, and everything in between.
Disney continuously reimagines its theme park offerings to appeal to more guests by incorporating new stories from its popular films and series. Disney Parks has seen growth following previous periods of significant investment, which included the additions of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, and more.
Today, as Disney considers future growth opportunities, there is a deep well of stories that have yet to be fully explored in its theme parks. Already, new Frozen-themed lands are coming to Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, and Tokyo DisneySea. In the near term, World of Frozen will open in November 2023 at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Beyond the familiar favorites, Disney will explore even more characters and franchises, including some that haven’t been leveraged extensively to date, as it embarks on a new period of significant growth domestically and internationally in its parks and resorts.
“We have a wealth of untapped stories to bring to life across our business,” said D’Amaro. “Frozen, one of the most successful and popular animated franchises of all time, could have a presence at the Disneyland Resort. Wakanda has yet to be brought to life. The world of Coco is just waiting to be explored. There’s a lot of storytelling opportunity.”
Disney currently has the largest physical footprint of any global theme park travel business, with 12 parks across six sites around the world. Its newest resort, Shanghai Disney Resort, opened in 2016. This park will expand once again with a new Zootopia Land, including the ‘Hot Pursuit’ trackless dark ride in Late 2023.
Disney’s Parks business is a key driver of value creation for the company, and positive segment results in recent past quarters through FY23Q3 have come in part from strong performance at Disney’s international parks, particularly those in Asia. Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland, which have both shown meaningful growth coming out of the pandemic through Q3 FY23, have even further growth opportunities with the expansions set to open later this year.
In addition to development plans already underway, there is significant room for further expansion on land and at sea. “We stand alone when it comes to scale,” said D’Amaro. “And while our scale is impressive, we have no shortage of space or regions of the world in which to tell new stories.”
According to the company, Disney Parks has over 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space across its existing sites – the equivalent of about seven new Disneyland Parks.
Meanwhile, Disney Cruise Line serves as a vehicle for the brand in ports and markets around the globe beyond its theme parks, including Australia and New Zealand for the first time later this year, extending the reach of Disney’s experiences.
As previously announced, over the next two years, Disney will nearly double the worldwide capacity of its cruise line, adding two ships in fiscal year 2025 and another in 2026, delivering even further growth potential and introducing new markets to Disney experiences, including a new homeport in Singapore beginning in 2025 to expand its reach further into the Asia-Pacific region.
Disney has seven of the top ten most attended theme parks in the world, including Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, which has been the #1 attended theme park on earth for decades. Disney Parks welcome approximately 100 million guests each year.
Yet there is still enormous untapped potential for reaching more consumers. According to Disney’s internal research, there is an addressable market of more than 700 million people with high Disney affinity it has yet to reach with its Parks. In fact, for every one guest who visits a Disney Park, there are more than ten people with Disney affinity who do not visit the Parks.
“Ultimately what is most important to us is the relationship that we have with every guest,” said D’Amaro. “Guests can spend a day with us at our Parks, a week with us on a Cruise, or the rest of their lives with us through Disney Vacation Club membership.”
As Disney expands its footprint and offerings, not only will the company be able to reach more of its existing fans, but it will create new fans and loyal consumers. (Once again, all of this is according to the company–our editorializing doesn’t start until below the Frozen photo.)
As the company develops plans to accelerate and expand investment in its Parks business, it looks forward to introducing fans to more of the most powerful characters and stories, expanding its global footprint, advancing its state-of-the-art commercial capabilities, and leveraging its unmatched global talent to forge relationships with new generations of fans around the world.
“Throughout our history, we’ve created enormous growth by investing the right amount of capital into the right projects at the right moment,” said Iger. “We are planning to turbocharge our growth yet again with a robust amount of strategic investment in this business.”
Turning to commentary, there isn’t that much new ground covered here that wasn’t already weaved into the commentary of our post about the $60 billion in new investment. D’Amaro had mentioned Wakanda to the New York Times and I’ve long suspected that World of Frozen would be an upcoming addition to Disneyland, so those were both mentioned in passing.
Nevertheless, they’re probably both worthy of further elaboration and there are a couple of other topics that I forgot to address in that $60 billion post. So here goes…
Let’s start with Wakanda from Black Panther, which has been subject to a lot of rumors and wishful thinking from Walt Disney World fans since the first film was released and proved to be a smash success. There has been speculation that Black Panther would end up at pretty much every park except Magic Kingdom, and I still think there are multiple options here.
The first and most likely candidate would a Black Panther redo of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. As a reminder, the New York Times did a piece back in November 2018 that included a tidbit about Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster being rethemed to a Marvel ride. That article wasn’t just speculative–it involved Disney’s cooperation. It was quickly “corrected,” and my bet has always been that was because somebody jumped the gun and shared that prematurely.
Obviously, it’s been 5 years and a lot has changed since then. One thing that hasn’t changed is the popularity of Aerosmith and the unnecessary liability that a classic rock band presents (with minimal marketing upside). A retheme of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is incredibly low-hanging fruit, and it’s only a matter of time before it happens. With nothing slated to open in 2025, maybe this will be that year’s “big” addition. (Air quotes around big because this is probably the cheapest and fastest possible option, and thus the most likely.)
Another possibility for Wakanda is it taking over the abandoned plans for the Play Pavilion at EPCOT. If I recall correctly, this was a competing concept that was a rumored replacement for Wonders of Life back in 2018. Obviously, it did not win out. Since the Play Pavilion was permanently shelved, there have been rumblings about ongoing issues with the building itself, so who knows how those come into play with its future prospects.
Repurposing the Wonders of Life pavilion into Wakanda would create a de facto Marvel miniland in World Discovery, and it could be the second ‘Other World Showcase’ pavilion. From Walt Disney World’s perspective, and as a matter of marketability, that probably makes a lot of sense. Personally, I don’t love the idea of more Marvel in EPCOT, but I suspect that Wakandan technology could be the jumping off point for this to be shoehorned into EPCOT. It wouldn’t make any less sense than the Wonders of Xandar, which works decently well as a framing device.
What I do not expect is a fully-fledged World of Wakanda. Both the Wonders of Life Pavilion and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster are attractive options because they could be themed to Black Panther without costing a billion-plus dollars to create a lavish and immersive Wakanda land. An attraction based on Black Panther would have tremendous drawing power, but I just can’t see Disney invested the time and money needed to create an elaborate, outdoor Wakanda area.
For what it’s worth, this has nothing to do with what Wakanda does or does not “deserve.” Personally, I think Black Panther is probably one of the best bets for theme park investment (and a lot is simply off-limits for Walt Disney World, regardless). I’m just skeptical that there’s much of an appetite to spend big on Marvel (or Star Wars), and think Wakanda could be an easy addition on a short timeline. With most of the big projects at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom unlikely to open before 2026-2029, something is needed on a tighter timeline. Wakanda could be that gap-filler for 2025.
Finally, it’s possible that Wakanda isn’t in the cards for Walt Disney World at all, and this was a reference to Avengers Campus at Disneyland or Disneyland Paris. At Destination D23, more details were revealed for the Marvel Multiverse E-Ticket for Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure. While this was previously touted as a King Thanos attraction, I could see it returning to the original setting, which was Wakanda. (Again, this would be Wakanda without having to create a dimensional land around it.)
D’Amaro’s second big tease was Frozen for Disneyland Resort. For years, there have been rumors of Fantasyland expansion at Disneyland. Most versions of this involve replacing Fantasyland Theatre and taking up some of the space between Toontown and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or some portion of the lagoons and Autopia area on the opposite side.
Around 5 years ago, there was a credible rumor that revolved around Arendelle. We’ve suspected for a while that Disney has been waiting for World of Frozen to open at Hong Kong Disneyland, and see guest reception to that. That land has been getting a ton of marketing in the United States by Disney, which is really odd for an addition at HKDL. It makes sense that there’s an ulterior motive for that–to see how Americans respond to it.
If it’s well-received at Hong Kong Disneyland, moving forward on World of Frozen at Disneyland makes sense. Fantasyland is cramped, and opening up more walkways would ease the strain of crowds and help with capacity. Toontown has reopened and is more popular than ever, and also helps with the drawing power for this area of the park. Finally, World of Frozen would be cost-effective since they just built it in HKDL and have another version under construction in France.
Next, it’s worth covering Disney Cruise Line because we didn’t really mention that in our previous post beyond pointing out that a lot of the near-term CapEx is going to the expanded fleet. And that’s true, the fleet expansion is still underway, and a significant expense in the next couple of years.
However, we’ve heard a lot of disillusioned Walt Disney World fans lament that most of the $60 billion will be for DCL. Unless you think Disney Cruise Line is adding another half-dozen ships beyond what’s already announced, that simply is not the case. Much of the CapEx for the current fleet expansion has already been spent. The Disney Treasure and Disney Adventure are both in the home stretch; the latter will be the first Disney ship to sail from Singapore and throughout Southeast Asia, expanding DCL’s footprint to that side of the globe.
Then there’s Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, Disney Cruise Line’s upcoming island destination. Again, this project is in the home stretch. That only leaves the 8th ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet expansion as being a significant expense–and it will be, but even that is probably “only” around $2 to $3 billion. Otherwise, the money has pretty much already been spent on Disney Cruise Line. My guess would be that that known DCL projects amount to around $5 billion of the $60 billion.
With 4 fairly new ships that double the size of the fleet, I’d be surprised if a significant sum over the next 10 years is earmarked for Disney Cruise Line beyond the known additions. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking on my part as someone who would rather see expansion at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but Disney Cruise Line already has a ton in the pipeline, and a lot of the costs associated with those projects are already accounted for. Further additions in the next decade are likely, but probably not until the dust settles on the currently planned ships and Disney is able to evaluate demand, etc.
Finally, there’s the future of Duffy and Friends. I included the slide on this from Disney’s 8-K filing with the SEC in the prior post, but didn’t actually address it. Honestly, I have no clue what, if anything, this Duffy representation means.
This could just be trumpeting the success of Duffy and Friends, which has become the highest selling franchise at the theme parks. But I really don’t think you highlight that $500 million sales (!!!) without having a plan for their future. Otherwise, that just invites a bunch of investor questions that don’t have good answers.
As for what that plan could be, again, no clue. Disney really needs to tread lightly here, or risk milking its cash cow dry. They have to do something so this isn’t just a merchandise machine, but whatever it is needs to be well-received among the Duffy disciples. I could see a stage show at Hong Kong Disneyland (I think they’re done with new rides for a while) and/or a dark ride at Shanghai Disneyland. And it’s beyond time for the characters to return to Walt Disney World–they’d be much, much more popular this go-round.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on Wakanda from Black Panther or World of Frozen being added to Walt Disney World or Disneyland? What is your reaction to the Walt Disney Company’s purported plans to “turbocharge” investment and double CapEx to $60 billion on Park & Resorts in the next decade? Which potential plans or projects have you most and least excited? Anything you’re hoping does not end up coming to fruition? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m interested to see if and how they re-introduce Duffy and friends to the US parks. Social media and Disney news have come a long way since Duffy was created and kind of halfheartedly marketed as an obvious cash grab, and I think the demand for merchandise is there now that people are seeing all the cute stuff that the Asian parks are getting and wondering why we in the States don’t have anything. I’ve seen a lot of people in Disneyland wearing Duffy ears/merchandise despite not being able to buy it here. Maybe incorporating them into some entertainment like parades/castle shows and doing character meet and greets would help with recognition for “average” park goers who aren’t keeping an eye on what other parks are doing.
It’s exciting to see Disney’s commitment to expanding and enriching the parks and cruise experiences. I’m particularly curious about the potential Wakanda attractions and whether they’ll live up to fans’ high expectations. It’s evident that Disney is taking a strategic and calculated approach to growth, and I eagerly await the magic they’ll unveil in the coming decade.
It would be nice to have a ride/land that is not based on a movie.
I love Disney, not ESPN, only a few Marvel and old Star Wars things but I am old so I count for little in this new world ! But it seems like a whole new park in the US would be nice . Frozen would work where it gets cold!
I imagine many of the commenters here are more heavily invested in traditional Disney compared to Marvel, so I understand the trepidation. But I think Disney would be missing a huge opportunity to not incorporate more Marvel in Hollywood Studios, and Wakanda is the perfect setting to start.
Wakanda is its own beautiful world — away from the traditional New York setting for Spiderman, Stark, and friends — and heavily influenced by advanced technology. It’s ripe for world-building. You could have intricate set pieces full of African culture, showcase technological advances in the real world and their equivalents in Wakanda, all alongside a more intense ride. And it doesn’t conflict with Universal! (I can’t believe they haven’t made a ride yet.)
I really think this is a no-brainer to include in Hollywood Studios. Marvel has been a juggernaut for 15 years, and will continue to be a massive presence for years to come.
We need a Frozen Land at WDW like Hong Kong has. Every little girl’s dream world. (Get your “Let It Go” song and dance ready Tom)
Sadly, it won’t happen at Walt Disney World. An updated version of Frozen Ever After is the main ride, and that already exists at EPCOT.
With that said, there are plenty of other animated movies and attractions/lands under construction or that recently opened in the Asia parks that could be the basis for great additions at Walt Disney World!
We have entered the reality phase of the corporate hubris cycle. At least disney can admit failures and gives us what we want.
As a SoCal Disneyland fan (and mother of 2 kids at prime Disney age) who opted not to renew her Dream
Key (due to general crowds, waits, having to make res far in advance and long lines unless you pay for G+ each visit)…I would like any Disney execs reading this to know I will give you all of my discretionary theme park budget if you put Olaf in a new attraction at Disneyland. I’m willing to listen to Let It Go again if that’s the price I have to pay. (If any of you haven’t watched Josh Gad narrate the jungle cruise on YouTube, you’re only cheating yourselves)
Imagine Olaf Presents overlaid on Storybook boats— you don’t even need to change anything about the ride, just let Olaf tell the stories—maybe with a projection of Olaf in the boat? We have been consciously avoiding HK for 3 years (I’ve been to the park already, but it’s the last one my kids need for completion) but the aggressive marketing blitz for HKDL Arendelle is tempting my kids (and honestly me).
Would be happy to see Wakanda/technology hybrid stuff at DCA or Epcot…I was hoping the Iron Man coaster will replace Rock n Roller Coaster—but I’m guessing they have IP problems there. I get that many readers here are down on Marvel expansion—but I think a LOT of people would enjoy a Loki/Thor themed ride (perhaps including Sylvie and Croki?)—perhaps Star Tours style where you can experience different “timelines” each ride?
I could do this all day…but I’m looking forward to whatever Josh D’Amaro has in store and hoping that they just start building something for us to get excited about.
Can they do anything with Black Panther at WDW, or would he be tied up at Universal with the rest of Marvel’s A-list?
James,
It’s possible that Black Panther is covered by the Universal contract, but I think he and related characters could be up for grabs in the future the way the characters they do use won’t be. The Universal contract for The Simpsons is time constrained, and I could see getting some Marvel rights clarity back. I like revisiting Black Panther and Wakanda Forever a lot more than the other Marvel movies/TV shows, so I’d be fine with that. (I’ve never felt more in line with the general public than to see they share my disinterest in Ant Man. Not even Paul Rudd is charming enough for three movies of that character.)
Tom,
Wasn’t the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was rethemed to a Marvel ride … in Walt Disney Studios at Disneyland Paris a year or so after that article came out? A ride starring Iron Man was never going to be cleared by Universal for WDW.
@Aaron, Yes, Rockin’ at Disneyland Paris was rethemed to Marvel. We rode it earlier this year and honestly, it was not great. It was all screens (of course), and it felt like it was done pretty quickly and cheaply. Also, we really missed the music — without it, the ride isn’t anywhere near as fun. Rockin’ is one of my two favorite rides (Cosmic Rewind is the other one), and I dread the day they reskin it.
i could see wakanda in the wonders of life building. if they had moved forward in any capacity with the PLAY pavilion, that tech could fairly easily be rethemed to wakanda. if it’s comin, i’d much rather see it there than rock n roller coaster, which needs needs to be the electric mayhem, or i’d also accept powerline.
I guess there are kids who hear Marvel and think Disney but I’m not one of them. Then again I’m not a kid. Sadly I can tell you I read Amazing Fantasy 15 when it came out. I have friends who worked at Marvel and wrote some of the big books. Disney only gets the MCU right about half the time despite a great catalog of stories from the House of Ideas and they’ve really done a number on Star Wars. They have screwed up that franchise so badly that if you told me they had to close down half of one of the Parks because a grizzly George Lucas was running around looking for Iger I would not be surprised.
Stick to the recent animated classics Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Coco and Encato for Park expansion.
When Disney bought Marvel they also “bought” Kevin Feige (and Stan Lee was still invested in the success of the MCU). So there was someone to steer the creative vision (and say “no” when needed based on creative integrity). George Lucas didn’t come along for Disney’s Star Wars era and left no one in place to steer the ship. Selecting 3 different directors to create episodes 7/8/9 without any cohesive narrative thread in place was a massive gaffe that is only starting to be rectify via Dave Filoni (though I’m not fully sold on him yet). I love both Marvel and (especially) Star Wars but I would agree that neither is especially “Disney” in character, nor was Pretty Woman, Signs, The Waterboy, Armageddon, or Dead Poets Society (all Disney hits).
Personally, I think Marvel and Star Wars are both good fits for Disney that round out its offerings…I’m just “over” them. Too much content in too few years with too much CGI and zero stakes. It’s all just become dull.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of amazing animated movies that have stood or will stand the test of time that really aren’t represented with attractions in the parks. Time to give those some love.
Disney really missed an opportunity by not theming Journey of Water to The Waterboy. Now that (would’ve been) some high quality h20!
I commented on Wakanda/Play Pavilion in the previous post but to paraphrase, a “Play Pavilion Featuring Shuri’s Lab” would be a perfect way to meld Marvel IP with science, futurism, edutainment, and fun — while adding to the cultural representation and inclusivity that’s always been pure “Epcot”.
A version of this concept opened at the London Science museum last year, so Epcot could take this to the next level:
https://thedirect.com/article/black-panther-letitia-wright-lab-museum-photos
Also:
1. Wakanda IS sort of the closest thing to an actual Tomorrowland in spirit, but I doubt a full Wakandan overhaul would make most fans happy
2. Frozen in Disneyland makes perfect sense but it’s hard to see how a robust land and full-fledged attractions (with queues, show buildings, etc.) would fit within the existing DL footprint without losing classic attractions (and/or eating part of Tomorrowland). Matterhorn converted to North
Mountain? Submarine voyage replaced with Arandelle harbor? Storyland Canal Boats and Casey Jr. train devoured by expansion? Not to mention conflicts with fireworks closures…
To me it makes more sense to make Frozen the first land within the DisneylandForward footprint (where you could fully clone the HK version) but I know Tom isn’t bullish on that prospect.
Definitely think something like that could work for Wakanda in the Play Pavilion–very interesting!
As for World of Frozen in Disneyland, I would not expect a 1:1 clone of Hong Kong Disneyland. Already, it seems pretty clear the WDSP will be different. Definitely hard to envision how it would work in the limited space in that area of Fantasyland, but there’s nothing to say the parade route couldn’t be shortened, or a show building could go backstage near Galaxy’s Edge. Even though it’s a pretty obvious overlay, I think they know better than to convert Matterhorn into a Frozen attraction…but maybe not?
We are not fans of the Marvel franchise at all and have become less and less fans of Star Wars as Disney expands the franchise with new characters and stories we could care less about. We don’t go to the Marvel movies (and we attend movies in the theaters at least 3 or 4 times per month), and we don’t subscribe to any streaming services. I know we are old fashioned, but we buy the DVDs/Blue Rays of the movies we want to see more than once, and we watch them at our convenience with no commercials. Most of the streaming material is a waste of time to us. I am in favor of Disney Parks & Resorts spending its CapEx dollars on the classic animated movies that we identify with Disney.
As mentioned in another comment further down, I think you’ll largely get your wish.
The merch for Wakanda was a dismal failure. The movie was an awesome blockbuster but the merch failed to sell, it is no secret. Why would Disney blow all of that money building a ride/world based of a merch brand that couldn’t be given away for free? It is a movie for grown ups so kids aren’t going to be pressuring their parents in the park to go and the adults won’t buy the merch for themselves. Disney needs to build rides/worlds that does both well in theaters and store shelves, especially children’s themes.
While I agree that merchandising can be important and outcome determinative in an addition being greenlit (see Cars Land or Toy Story Lands), I don’t think it’s necessary. I cannot imagine TRON is moving much merchandise these days. Likewise, hard to believe Avatar was when Pandora was greenlit (honestly, despite all of the stuff they make for the land, I’m still skeptical that Avatar moves much merchandise to this day). Those would also be two lands that skew more adult.
Wakanda/Black Panther would have marketability and drawing power, especially among ages and demographics that Walt Disney World hasn’t done a great job of capturing. I can’t imagine they’d drop $500 million on an all-new ride for it, but a retheme or an overlay in an existing pavilion that costs <$100 million? Absolutely.
AND that is EXACTLY my point! Avatar doesn’t make any ongoing money for Disney, neither does Tron, other than it’s lame Enterprise sponsorship. Avatar was very expensive to build and no meaningful merch to sell so no way to continue supporting it as an ongoing attraction. When Motorola sponsored Test Track there was great merch to buy to continue supporting it, Now it’s a GM Dealership lot, dull. We don’t buy anything after coming off the ride. Even little one doesn’t care about the merch to buy. Last week we spent $200 at the Pirates store after the ride because it was the total package of movie, entertainment and merch.
We saw a bunch of these folks in Epcot last night, huge contingent at GotG during EEH. They were all pretty energized and I overheard lots of Marvel talk, albeit that’s pretty anecdotal and these could have been nobody’s. Regardless, excited to see the doubling of capex, that’s real money and as you mentioned, could speed up timelines to 2025. Separate note, thanks for all the great advice and info you all put out, it’s been incredibly helpful this week! I’m always secretly rooting to bump into Bricker in the parks…maybe tomorrow!
Interesting! Not surprised that they’d be energized and excited about Marvel if they just did Cosmic Rewind. That is, until reality and the trajectory of the MCU set in.
Glad to hear the advice has been helpful–you won’t see us in the Walt Disney World parks this week, though!
I honestly didnt/don’t get duffy but I agree because they are going to test the waters for a relaunch in the US parks. If it manages to get any traction then its basically a licence to print money for Disney. It could also be an expansion in Tokyo. If a glorified Alien swirling saucers/ Maters Junkyard Jamboree can get consistent hour long lines for happy ride with Baymax then imaggine what a Duffy dark ride will do to attendance. It would be like upgrading journey into imagination with figment (another guy i dont get but understand is wildly popular).
OLC has a “don’t fix what isn’t broken” mindset with Duffy. It’s a totally different ballgame there, but I don’t see them building a Duffy attraction. For one thing, there isn’t space in Cape Cod. For another thing, the entertainment approach works really well, and is faster and easier to deploy as necessary. I suspect they’ll stick with that.
I would be careful if I were Disney putting any additional park space/dollars in any Marvel product. Seems to me that there is a pretty significant decline in the fan base and the theater receipts being generated from the most recent round of films, perhaps GOTG being the exception.
Wakanda Forever did pretty well, but still, I think you’re correct about Disney being cautious to invest significant sums on MCU in the parks. I also don’t expect to see anything major for Star Wars beyond new characters, entertainment, and (maybe) a restaurant. But certainly no brand-new rides or lands.
Both what I’ve heard and the impression that I’ve gotten is that the next phase of Parks & Resorts expansion will skew more towards classic animated movies with broad appeal and staying power. (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, and Coco are all considered modern classics.)
Totally agree. And I’m glad to hear that Tom thinks this is what’s likely to happen! Disney needs to focus on its own animated films, not pushing the latest marvel/avengers thing.